CAIRO (Updated) - Egyptians went to the polls Sunday in a legislative vote that was marred by violence leaving at least four dead, with protests led by the Islamists, who accused the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) of bullying. Four people were killed in alleged election violence in Cairo, Alexandria, Menoufia and Qena governorates, but Government officials said the deaths weren't related to the polls. In Cairo, the son of an independent candidate was stabbed to death by thugs in the working class area of el-Mataria, where he was putting up posters for his father. “The three thugs who killed Amr Sayyed have been arrested. However, they claim they stabbed him for harassing the sister of one of them,” Tareq Attia, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said. The second fatality was reported in the city of Shebein el-Kom in the Nile Delta in a clash with other voters, while the third was killed by some supporters of an independent candidate in Qena. A 79-year-old woman, meanwhile, died of diabetes inside a polling station in Alexandria, Egypt's second biggest city. The elections were supposed to start nationwide at 8am. However, some polling stations delayed the process until 9am for no apparent reason. “I went to a polling station, where a plainclothes policeman told me in a loud voice to go home. He said: ‘There are no elections, ya Hajj',” a 61-year-old man from Alexandria told The Egyptian Gazette. As the vote started, representatives of the banned Muslim Brotherhood's candidates were denied entry to the polling stations, as the heads of the stations said their proxies should have been sealed by police chiefs. The representatives, who organise and monitor the voting process for their candidates, protested in Alexandria, Suez, Port Said, Sharqia and Mansoura, where some of them were arrested. They were then released, according to Essam el-Erian, a senior member of the Brotherhood, whose electronic websites were all blocked for many hours. Safwat el-Sherif, the Secretary-General of the NDP, slammed the Brotherhood's bid to ‘overturn the truth'. “NDP candidates would never get dragged into a dispute with this illegal organisation,” he said. In Gharbia, the Brotherhood campaigners said hired thugs prevented them from monitoring the elections. Also in Gharbia, when some voters threw stones and tried to push their way into a polling station, police expelled them, witnesses said. Hamdin Sabahi, a potential presidential challenger who contested yesterday's elections as an independent, said he quit the race in the Kafr el-Sheikh constituency of el-Hamool. Sabahi wrote on his Twitter account that the vote was rigged for the NDP candidate. A senior official in the ruling party said Sabahi decided to quit after being defeated. The Government had promised free and fair elections. “The complaints we have received so far are not serious and are not a handicap to the process, which is going very smoothly,” said Sameh el-Kashef, a spokesman for the Higher Election Commission, a body of judges managing the polls. El-Kashef added that the official results and details of the turnout percentage would be declared Tuesday. Clashes erupted in some constituencies nationwide, as security personnel surprisingly hanged back from the protesters. There were minor disputes between supporters of Minister of Military Production Sayyed Meshaal and Moustafa Bakri, a journalist, in Helwan. “The clashes took place when supporters of both candidates entered the same polling stations. However, Meshaal and Bakri calmed them down,” an eyewitness told The Egyptian Gazette. The result of the polls is not in doubt, only the size of the majority for President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party, which has never lost an election. Many Egyptians see no point in voting. “I won't vote. I have other important things to do,” said Abdel-Karim Nabil, a trader. The official turnout in the 2005 elections was 22 per cent. Rights groups put it at 12 per cent. Human rights groups cited violations and irregularities in most constituencies, ranging from the stuffing of ballot boxes to using photocopied ballot papers and bribing voters. Chairman of the Media Committee at the National Democratic Party Alieddin Helal describe Sunday's parliamentary elections as marking a “transformation” in Egypt's political life. He admitted the presence of violations in several areas, but said they were normal because of the intensity of the competition for the parliamentary seats. “In some constituencies, we have dual party nominations for the same seat,” Helal said. “The word competition itself means that clashes are likely.” Irregularities mainly included barring voters and delegates of contenders from having access to polling stations, according to a report from the State-backed National Council for Human Rights. A team of European Union officials, meanwhile, commended the organisation of the voting process nationwide, stressing that the Egyptian procedures are the same as those adopted in elections in European countries. “What we have seen shows that the Egyptian Government wants fair and transparent elections,” a Spanish official with the team was quoted by the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) as saying. The team visited the National Council for Human Rights and some other Cairo constituencies. “It is a friendly follow-up,” the Spanish official commented.
